Litchfield Cadet Earns Leadership Award at Lincoln's Challenge

Cory Robinson of Litchfield to Pursue Higher Education at Lincoln Land Community College

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Cory Robinson of Litchfield receives the Leadership Award from Lincoln’s Challenge Academy Director Peter Thomas on Dec. 10 at the Capital Civic Center in Springfield.

SPRINGFIELD, IL (12/10/2011)(readMedia)-- Cory Robinson of Litchfield earned the Leadership Award for Lincoln's Challenge Academy Class 37 during the academy's graduation ceremony Dec. 10 at the Capital Civic Center in Springfield.

Robinson earned the award for helping his fellow cadets and leading by his own example, said Peter Thomas, the academy's director. Robinson will now attend Lincoln Land Community College in Springfield where he will pursue a degree in psychology.

"I worked hard and tried to set the example," Robinson said. "I watched out for, cared for and recognized people on my team."

Class 37 was among the hardest working Lincoln's Challenge classes ever. Two hundred and sixty-two cadets – 75.7 percent – of the class earned their General Educational Development diplomas. This is the highest GED pass rate in Lincoln's Challenge history. Close to 60 percent of the 584 cadets who started the program in July made it to graduation.

Lincoln's Challenge Academy is administered by the Illinois National Guard and is the largest single-site Challenge program in the nation. It has graduated more than 12,000 cadets since its launch in 1993, the most in the United States. The academy takes "at-risk" youth from throughout Illinois who have dropped out of traditional high school and places them in a rigorous disciplined quasi-military environment for 22 weeks at the academy's campus on the former Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoul. The resident phase is followed by a year-long post-resident phase where the graduates return to their communities and are paired with mentors.

"Cory has never been one to get into trouble," said Robinson's father, Chris Robinson. "He played a lot of video games, was hanging out with friends too much and got poor grades. He needed leadership and discipline. He had to have the drive to succeed put on him, rather than someone else pushing him."